“What? But I hate him.”
“I know, and I’m going to have a grand old time watching you squirm through it all.”
Chief’s mech scratched its hull with its claw as if it were thinking. Then it raised its laser and pointed it straight up. “Fine, I’ll take that bet.” Chief fired a laser and a beam seared through the ceiling. Several bodies fell from the floors above, charred and partially disintegrated. “That makes seven for me.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chiyo quickly climbed the ladder to the third floor and the final server of their main objective. With their victory in the first part of the test all but assured, she began to wonder how they should approach the bonus objective.
When she reached the top, she glanced over the exit, just to be safe. There were no guards lingering, and the room was empty. The loud blasts of cannons and static hiss of laser fire from below indicated that the mercs were throwing as much of their might at the two rampant mechs below as possible.
She walked over to the correct server and inserted the drive. Kaitō, knowing his part by now, began his hunt quickly while Chiyo checked the console and overrode the security for the third level.
That done, she took a seat and looked over the mission details once more.
Obtain data from servers (2/3)
Escape enemy building
Bonus Objective:
Access main terminal on top floor using codes from the three servers
She frowned at the screen. What were they supposed to do once they accessed the terminal? Also, how would they escape? She supposed if Kaiden and Chief were successful in their hunt, they could simply walk right out of the base with no worries. If they had to, could they double back to the carrier in the cave and use that to escape? She didn’t recall seeing an option to drive or operate it.
She put her questions to the side, deciding they would figure it out once they got there. The thought brought a quick grimace. She was beginning to think like Kaiden.
“Kaiden, I’ve almost finished downloading the final batch of data. I’ll be heading up to the fourth floor using the stairs since you have been kind enough to distract all the guards. How are you progressing?”
Kaiden slammed the arm of the mech into a group of four mercs, and they crashed onto the floor. As one of the heavies moved to pick up his gun, Kaiden fired a round from the cannon and blew him up. The blast created a hole in the floor that two of the other mercs fell into.
“Winning, currently. I’m at sixty-three, and Chief is at fifty-nine.”
“Sixty-four now, dumbass,” Chief corrected as his laser powered down. “You’re trailing, and there’s only fifty left!”
“You’re up by one,” Kaiden sneered. “That’s not trailing.”
“It’s a precedent for how this bet is going to end.”
“That in your best hopes and dreams you going to win by the skin of your teeth? At least your expectations are realistic.” Kaiden fired down toward the end of the hall as a trio of heavies rounded the corner, blowing them away. “But still wrong.”
“I looked through the cameras again.” Chiyo interrupted their debate. “I still don’t see the other two mechs. It would appear that I was correct in guessing that they will be guarding the way to the bonus objective.”
“We’ll meet you there, promise,” Kaiden vowed. “Just let us finish up here.” With that, he charged down the corridor. He looked at the scanner on his screen and saw over a dozen blinking blue lights. Usually, that would indicate friendlies, but since he wasn’t a Red Sun merc, that indicated targets.
He strafed around the corner and was greeted by two blasts of fire from the Red Sun pyros, frying his shield. He plowed through them, punting one down the hall and firing at him. The pyro and the canister on his back blew up, showering the other mercs in flames.
“We don’t have to leave the building itself intact, right?” Kaiden asked as he saw the flames beginning to creep up the walls.
“I don’t see anything in the mission details that indicates we do, but your timing for these questions is horrible,” Chief remarked snidely.
“Oh, blast yourself,” Kaiden retorted, taking out a couple of mercs trying to make a run for it. “And that makes my total seventy-eight.”
“I just took out the last of the heavies and shockers. I’m at seventy-nine,” Chief informed him gleefully.
“You’re one ahead again? You pulling my leg?”
“You can check the count on my screen once I win. But for now, there’s three pyros and fifteen grunts left along with the two goliaths.”
Kaiden sat back for a moment. He didn’t see any more mercs running around. Quickly, he tapped a finger along the side of his helmet. “Hey, Chiyo…mind looking around for the last batch of mercs for me?” he whispered quietly into his comms.
“Hey! That’s cheating,” Chief bellowed.
“You can hear me? That was a direct line to Chiyo,” Kaiden exclaimed.
“I might be piloting this mech, but I’m still partially in you, idiot. I can still hear what you’re doing.”
“Then in fairness to your game and trying to speed this along, the rest of the grunts are above you,” Chiyo stated. “From what I see, the pyros are using their oil grenades to soak the floor. It looks like they plan on dropping their chemical fire on top of you in hopes of melting your mechs.”
“Is that right? Like directly above us?” Kaiden asked.
“Yes, some on top of you and some on top of Chief.”
“Are you directly above us?”
“No, I am a little over two hundred yards away. I’ve retrieved the drive and will be heading to the stairs in—”
“That’s all good. See you then,” Kaiden said, looking at Chief a long way down the hall. They both raised their weapons and fired, blowing through the ceiling. Those mercs not annihilated in the blasts fell down to land beside them.
“Round them up,” Kaiden shouted, stomping and crashing into all the mercs around him. He looked on his screen of confirmed kills, reset when they began the bet. He was at eighty-seven.
“Chief, what are you at?” he demanded.
“Eighty-six.”
“Ha! I win, I’m at eighty-seven.” Kaiden cheered, stopping for a moment as he counted the numbers. “Wait, that ain’t right…that’s one hundred and seventy-three… Without the other two mechs. That should mean there’s one hundred and seventy-five of the other mercs. Where are the last two?” Kaiden scanned around until he finally saw two mercs hobbling down the hall. “Gotcha!”
As he aimed his cannon, both mercs disappeared in red light. When it faded, bits and pieces of scorched armor lay in a heap. Kaiden looked up to see Chief coming over, his laser pointed outward. “Nah, I think I got them.”
Kaiden slammed his fists into the mech’s console. “You shifty son of a bitch. Those were my kills.”
“Could’ve been, but your little bout of showboating cost ya. I believe that makes me the winner.”
“Hell no, we still got the mechs upstairs. If I get both of them, then I win.”
“Ha! You couldn’t handle two mechs about fifteen minutes ago. What makes you think that you can handle them now?”
“I’ve got more practice now. Plus, my cannons got more firepower than your laser.”
“Maybe, but you gotta remember who’s in control of this baby,” Chief chirped, aiming the laser at the ceiling. “I can reroute the power to funnel into the laser, maximizing its output and damage. I’ll fricassee those two bots before you get a chance to line up a shot.”
“Not if I get there first,” Kaiden challenged. “I’ll boost my way up to the fourth floor and—”
“Kaiden, don’t,” Chiyo ordered. “All this destruction has already made the building unstable. If it collapses, even your mechs will be crushed. Use the service elevator and join me at the top.”
“I can’t let this glow stick dungball win, Chiyo.”
“And I can’t let him have the chance t
o win. Pride is at stake and all that.”
Chiyo, uncharacteristically, growled over the mic. “Chief, you’re an EI. You’re supposed to work with your host and not against him.”
“Right. You should listen to her, jackass,” Kaiden jeered
“Kaiden, you’re an ace. You are supposed to lead by example and do what’s best for the unit,” she scolded
“I…um…oh, right,” Kaiden mumbled.
After a few moments of silence, Kaiden heard Chiyo sigh and her voice return to her usual calm tone. “You’ve done well. You have defeated almost every hostile in the building, and we have completed our main objective. We have fifteen minutes to spare to get our time bonus. In truth, we can leave now and still probably come out close to the top if not at the top. But I’ve gotten to know you better over these last few weeks, Kaiden, and while some of your ways exasperate me, I do know that you would never intentionally botch a mission, nor would you do a haphazard job. I am assuming you do want to clear the mission completely, correct?”
“I do,” Kaiden asserted.
“Then please, just do this one thing for me, and we can finish the rest of the mission your way. Besides, I would think both of you would be forfeit if you died.”
“I mean…that wasn’t a rule. But I guess that would violate the spirit of the competition.”
Kaiden nodded to himself. “Give us a minute, Chiyo. We’ll be right up.”
“I’ll meet you there,” she said before signing off.
Kaiden and Chief walked over to the service elevator, Chief casting himself into the panel and calling it down before returning to the mech.
“Hothead,” the EI muttered.
“So am I taking after you or are you taking after me?” Kaiden jibed.
“I’m more of a snarky bastard…but all the same, I guess.”
“Look, if it means that much to ya, I’ll get the upgrade when I get two more synapse points. Win or lose.”
“Mighty kind of ya,” Chief said. The elevator descended, and the massive fenced doors opened. Kaiden and Chief walked the mechs inside.
“Just promise to not be such a dick to Kaitō, all right?” he requested.
Chief’s mech tilted slightly to look at Kaiden’s. “You’re gonna have to win to make that happen.”
Kaiden frowned, gripping his control stick. “Snarky bastard.”
Kaiden and Chief stepped out of the elevator, and Chiyo waved them down.
“Hey, Chiyo, know which way to go?”
She pointed away down the long hall. “It’s at the end on the left—one of the only rooms up here.”
“This is a big top floor; those ceilings are about thirty feet up,” Chief observed.
“Gives us plenty of room to maneuver,” Kaiden noted. “Hey Chief, open up and let Chiyo in. She wouldn’t be able to keep up with our mech’s gait.”
“Fine, fine, but I still got control till we get in there,” Chief said. The mech knelt, and the front hatch opened. “Come on into Chief mech walker’s finest, miss Chiyo.”
She climbed in and sat back as the hatch closed and the mech stood. “Thank you, Chief. We have a little over eleven minutes before we run out on the time bonus. Let us finish this.”
The mechs charged down the hall. Kaiden saw Chief’s laser begin to glow brightly. “You charging your laser when we’re not even around the corner yet?”
“I told you before, by shifting most of the mech’s power into the laser cannon, I can take them both out in one shot. Then we’re free to wrap this up with no fuss.”
“Just be careful,” Kaiden ordered as they neared the corner. “I’m going to say that they are expecting—”
As Chief’s mech turned the corner, it was blasted back by cannon fire and crashed into the wall. “Chiyo!” Kaiden shouted, moving his mech in front of the other as a laser shot beamed right for them.
The laser collided with Kaiden’s shield. He looked down at the specs and saw that the shield was at low power. Hastily, he looked up to see cracks forming, and the barrier became more translucent. It shattered as the beam dissipated.
“We’re all right,” Chief called. “Took a little hull damage. I’ll get the mech up and—”
Kaiden raced down the hall. The two mechs stood on either side of the large door to the room. He activated his boost jets and leaped in the air and landed between them. He flipped a switch on the mech’s console, granting him the ability to control each arm individually using his control sticks. Calmly, he aimed to his right and left, flipped another switch to enable his view screen to give him visibility to either side and saw both mechs turn to face him. As he’d hoped, he now had a point-blank shot at the pilot’s seats.
He fired both cannons, and the blasts ruptured the metal hulls almost instantaneously. Both defenders collapsed, and he could see the smoldering interiors with no remaining jocks, though he saw a single hand still gripping one of the control sticks in the laser mech on his left.
“Well…shit.” Chief sighed. “Good work, partner.”
Kaiden flipped the two switches back in place and turned the mech to see the other walk up behind him. “You all right, Chiyo?”
“I’m fine. Chief was nice enough to deploy the security foam to keep the impact to a minimum.”
“How did you know how to get manual control of the cannons? I thought you said you never used a mech before.”
“Like I said, practice. Also, I was messing with the different knobs and such on the way up the elevator.”
“Oh, that’s what you were doing? I thought you were trying to find the radio.”
“That was the last of the mercs,” Chiyo stated. “We have seven minutes. If you could please get us inside, Kaiden?”
“Certainly.” He turned the mech around and blasted the door open. They walked inside to see a number of computers along the walls. A large device with a circular top stood at the back with a six-foot-wide console at its base.
“That must be it. If you would please let me down, Chief,” Chiyo requested. The mech knelt and opened its hatch. Kaiden leaped out of his own as well and followed her to the terminal.
“So, still don’t wanna take a bet on what this thing will do?” Kaiden asked as he leaned against the console while Chiyo typed away.
“You have not had your fill with Chief?” she questioned.
“It’s a double bet. I get to win two.”
She looked at him. “I suggest you find satisfaction in winning one bet and passing the test.”
Kaiden shifted his head from side to side and mulled it over. “I guess that’ll do.”
A screen popped open and requested the code to activate. Chiyo inserted her drive into a port on the console. They waited a moment as the code was uploaded and then saw the device behind the console light up.
“What’s going on? Is it exploding?” Kaiden fretted.
“No… It’s a beacon of some sort,” Chiyo said, looking between the information appearing onscreen and the console.
“To call down a Red Sun ship to destroy us?”
“No. It’s opening a warp gate.” She looked at another screen. “Look.”
Kaiden watched and saw a large circular building retract its roof and a massive silver ring rocket into the sky. It sailed into space after a few moments, and a multitude of lights emitted from the boundaries of the ring, converging into the center and then expanding into a large blue pool.
They saw a huge capital ship appear from within the ring, followed by several smaller vessels, both human and Tsuna.
“When did this happen?” Kaiden asked.
Chiyo looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“I’m guessing this was based on an event or something? Seems kinda random for a mission.”
“Nothing in my files matches this,” Chief stated.
“Nor mine,” Kaitō added.
Chief’s eye furrowed. “Didn’t need your input there, pal.”
“What were the rules of the bet, Chief?” Kai
den reminded him.
“I’ll get around to it,” Chief grumbled.
A “Mission Accomplished” banner appeared on the screen and floated above them. “Huh, didn’t even have to leave the building.” Kaiden scratched his head in bewilderment.
“I believe the idea is that this fleet will be converting this into a base of operations…if it is still salvageable.”
“So how do you think we did?” he asked.
“We will know once we leave and the final scores are tallied.”
“I know, but I want your opinion. Feel like partnering again in the future?”
The room around them began to disappear, replaced by a pure white backdrop. Chiyo looked around. “Our ways of doing things may never truly match, but I always appreciate a different point of view.”
“So is that a yes?” Kaiden asked.
She looked back at him. “Considering all that we have accomplished despite our differences, this has worked out better than I could have hoped.”
“I have a way of knocking people dead, literally and metaphorically,” he bragged.
She turned to him. “I don’t know when the next time we work with each other will be. But I will be happy to work alongside you if you are willing.” She smiled as their forms began to fade.
He nodded and smirked. “Be happy to.” They drifted away from the Animus and back into reality.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Kaiden sat up as his Animus pod opened, leaned against the side, and looked at Chiyo as she awoke from the sync. “How are you feeling?”
She sat up straight and stretched her arms. “Quite well, considering I never had to fire a shot through the whole mission.”
“It’s one of the many bonuses for using the Kaiden Jericho gold package for all your merc handling needs,” he joked, climbing out of his pod and offering a hand to help her out of hers.
She accepted, and he pulled her up. Chiyo grabbed her bag on the side of the pod, and they walked over to the front of the hall where a few other duos were already waiting. They turned and clapped as the two arrived, congratulating them. Advisor Faraji walked up and shook their hands. “Great job, you two.”
Animus Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-4): Initiate, Co-Op, Death Match, Advance Page 61